


happiness is contagious

by katebishoop



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Everybody Lives, Fix-It, M/M, Not Epilogue Compliant, Post-Canon Fix-It, Season/Series 08 Spoilers, Secret Relationship, background Allura/Lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 20:59:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17029929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katebishoop/pseuds/katebishoop
Summary: Keith doesn't go back to his assigned room.His assigned room would remain empty.---Or, Shiro and Keith have seen each other more often than their friends knew.





	happiness is contagious

Seeing Lance was like seeing a ghost in more ways than one. The slow healing shell of a hollow boy, the marks of the woman he loved and lost on his cheeks. Keith knew the pain that Lance was going through, and looking at him made Keith feel like he was seeing a ghost of himself from his past.

“When do you head back to Earth?” Keith asked. 

They were the only two in the little lounge inside the pedestal of Allura’s memorial. At first, Keith was confused why’d there be a living space there, but Coran had looked at him sadly,  _ ‘We don’t want her to be alone.’  _ They’d stay with her, in this home she made with her life, and they’d make her proud.

“Couple of days.” Lance shrugged. His fingers lightly tapped the side of his mug, his eyes lost in the steam. “Still sorting through what Altea foliage I can take back to Earth safely.”

Keith nodded. “Anything else going on back on Earth?”

Lance used to be all wild energy. Razzle-dazzle. Loud and proud. Quick like the sharpshooter he was. Now he was slow and subdued.

A small, wistful smile graced Lance’s face. “You should ask Axca about that.”

“Huh?”

“Or Veronica, but she may yell at you.” Lance yawned and stood up. “I think that’s it for me.”

“Yeah.”

They both left the lounge and went left down the one hall that circled the building. Lance’s room was first. 

“Hey, Lance?” Lance paused in his doorway. “Call more. I’ll always answer.”

“You too,” Lance said, and Keith believed him this time. “Goodnight, Keith.”

“G’night.”

Keith continued down the hall. Pidge and Hunk had gone to bed hours ago, but Keith made sure to walk as quietly as possible as he passed their rooms, which were passed his assigned room.

His assigned room would remain empty.

Keith entered the final door quickly and quietly. He wasn’t surprised to see the light on.

“Shiro, you didn’t have to wait for me,” Keith said as he went over to the dresser to change.

“I wanted to.” Shiro couldn’t hide the drowsiness in his voice. This was Shiro’s first real break in a year.

Quick rendezvous whenever Keith happened to be near Atlas territory were always too short, and too few and far between.

“It’s well past the time, Shiro.” Keith yanked his sleep shirt over his head with a sigh.

Shiro wrinkled his brow. “We don’t have to go to bed-”

“It’s past time we told the team, Shiro.” Keith sat on his side of the bed, taking Shiro’s human hand into his. “About us.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

When Keith had woken up in the hospital, something had been different between Shiro and himself. There had been a tension that hadn’t been there before. Keith had given Shiro the space he needed despite how much it hurt to be so closed off from his best friend.

Then Zethrid held a knife to his throat over the edge of a volcano, and Shiro had come knocking on his door in the middle of the night.

_ “I… I’m sorry that I’ve been distant it’s just I-” Shiro was hugging Keith tightly like he thought Keith may be snatched away again right there. “You in that coma for weeks made me realize… and I didn’t know how to handle it… I didn’t want to hurt you or hold you back-” _

_ “Shiro-” _

_ “And then Zethrid had you and I finally stopped being an idiot. The fear of losing you  _ again  _ just…” Shiro pulled back so that he could look Keith directly in his eyes. “I love you, too, Keith. And I’m hoping that you still love me too.” _

_ “Of course I still love you, Shiro.” Keith slid his hands up to cup Shiro’s face. “I could never stop being in love with you.” _

_ Shiro’s smile was a bright light in that dark room, and it tasted even brighter. _

“What brought this on?” Shiro asked quietly as he stared down at their interlocked fingers.

“It’s been over a year. We wanted to keep in secret until after the war, but then Allura-” Keith’s breath shuddered. “-and it didn’t feel like to show that we’d found each other when Lance had just lost Allura, but. We shouldn’t have hidden this for so long. I don’t want to lie by omission anymore.”

Shiro bit his lip. “I know, I know.” Shiro let out a long sigh. “You know this means it’ll be common knowledge on the Garrison and Atlas, right?”

“...Is that a problem?”

“No! No, no Keith of course not.” Shiro squeezed his hand. “I just… I know it’s selfish, but I just wanted something that was  _ mine _ . Something that was private and separate and mine.”

“Hey, hey,” Keith placed his other hand on Shiro’s cheek, tilting his head so he was looking at him. “I’m always going to be yours.”

Shiro placed his metal hand over Keith’s, the cyan glow illuminating the sheets. Keith gave him a small smile.

“Happiness is contagious, right?” Keith said. “We could all use a little more.”

Shiro’s soft chuckle radiate warmth. “Sounds like something from a fortune cookie.”

Keith hummed. “Ezor’s cheerfulness is somehow both refreshing and exhausting at the same time.”

“I can only imagine,” Shro said, the end tipping up with a yawn.

“Speaking of exhaustion…”

“Mmm no.” Shiro leaned forward and pressed a sloppy kiss to Keith’s jaw. “Missed you. Want you.”

“You can barely keep your eyes open, Takashi.” Keith laughed as Shiro continued his lazy kisses along Keith’s neck.

Shiro hummed against the junction of his neck, and it went to right wear Shiro wanted it, the bastard. “I’m sure you’ll-” A bite. “-be able to-” A suck. “-wake me up-” A kiss. “-soon enou-”

A loud noise and a rush of energy jolted them out of bed. Were those… engines running? And then Keith could feel it.

“The Lions.”

They bolted out of their room and ran towards the exit. The others were rushing out too, as alarmed as they were.

“What’s…?” Lance’s voice trailed off as the Lions - even the Blue Lion! - flew up and hovered over Allura’s statue.

Keith felt something constrict in his chest; in Pidge’s, and Hunk’s, and Lance’s. This pressure building up like a balloon that had Keith’s eyes wide and face flush, his breathing heavy.

Shiro grabbed his hand, and Keith clutched it tightly.

(He won’t realize it until later, that they were seen running out of Shiro’s room together. Holding hands and each other close. He won’t realize until  _ she  _ asks when it all started and the other’s remember what they’d seen before the crying and the chaos).

Despite Keith getting better at them with age and time and practice, he would never be good at goodbyes. He could feel the Lions’ will, their pull, a final wave of warmth rushing over them.

The Lions’ roared, a bright white light encompasses them, and then they are gone - just specs moving amongst the infinite others in the sky.

“It… no…how...” Lance’s voice was quiet, unbelieving next to Keith’s. It must have been a new fresh wound all over again, losing one of the last things they had left of- “ _ ALLURA! _ ”

Keith’s head snapped towards the statue as Lance shot like a bullet from a gun towards it. Keith felt that energy, that warmth, that pull-

“Allura!”

“WHAT!”

“Oh my god!”

“Allura!?”

“You-you’re back! You’re alive!”

“Allura, I love you I love you  _ I love you _ -”

Tears, joy, confusion, relief, blubbering, gratitude, hugs, laughter.

Happiness. 

**Author's Note:**

> I have a whole list of happy fun season 8 fics planned! I am not even touching the Shiro-getting-married-to-someone-else angst with a ten-foot pole
> 
> Anyway, I made a twitter because I make poor life choices but also want to keep up with people post tumblr self-destruct.
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/katebishoopao3)!


End file.
